Game 5: Los Angeles Clippers @ Portland Trail Blazers: Oct 29 7:00 PM PCT

[esqtvd]

3 minutes left and he takes out the starters down 16? I wonder what message he's sending.

Welcome to the board, youngblood. But you're kidding, right? Batum, Zubac and Bledsoe were 3-for-17.

REPORTER: What did you think of your team's execution, Coach?

MCKAY: I'm in favor of it.

[ShaqFTs]

3 minutes left and he takes out the starters down 16? I wonder what message he's sending.

Welcome to the board, youngblood. But you're kidding, right? Batum, Zubac and Bledsoe were 3-for-17.

REPORTER: What did you think of your team's execution, Coach?

MCKAY: I'm in favor of it.

It sends a bad message to the team. I'm not worried about the missed shots, but this team just looks defeated.

[ejftw]

Batum: 1-6 / 0-4
Zu: 1-5
Bleds: 1-6 / 1-3
Jackson: 3-12 / 2-8


-20 on the glass

Allow 46% from three.


Just abysmal. I think Lue needs to stop with the RJax/Bleds starting unit, Luke needs to get the nod and let RJax chuck with the bench. Mook, despite his subpar start, needs to be back too

[playaloc916]

With Kawhi out, Reggie is being asked to do too much. Bledsoe shouldn't be starting. Zubac is running around one step behind the action. Glue Guy Batum has nothing to glue. Mann is a Swiss Army Knife who doesn't know whether his job is to open a can, stab it, screw it, or file its nails.

At first I laughed when I read this, but then my smile went away and I became sad because it's all true...

[playaloc916]

Batum: 1-6 / 0-4
Zu: 1-5
Bleds: 1-6 / 1-3
Jackson: 3-12 / 2-8


-20 on the glass

Allow 46% from three.


Just abysmal. I think Lue needs to stop with the RJax/Bleds starting unit, Luke needs to get the nod and let RJax chuck with the bench. Mook, despite his subpar start, needs to be back too

Yeah, I'd like to see Luke take Reggie's spot and see how it goes. Reggie will probably have an easier time scoring against second units, and the second unit needs a better ball handler.

[esqtvd]

With Kawhi out, Reggie is being asked to do too much. Bledsoe shouldn't be starting. Zubac is running around one step behind the action. Glue Guy Batum has nothing to glue. Mann is a Swiss Army Knife who doesn't know whether his job is to open a can, stab it, screw it, or file its nails.

At first I laughed when I read this, but then my smile went away and I became sad because it's all true...

Merci. Laughing through the tears.

[esqtvd]

Yeah, I'd like to see Luke take Reggie's spot and see how it goes. Reggie will probably have an easier time scoring against second units, and the second unit needs a better ball handler.

PG as our #1 and Luke as our #6 are the only things that are working. Build Back Backward.

When carving a block of granite, carve away everything that doesn't look like a statue.

[TheNewEra]

Dissatisfaction all around lol on to the next one

[Captain Ballmer]

Zu is getting crushed. We need to trade for a big if we want to make a playoff run this year.

Hartenstein is no better, that''s why he came to the Clips on a NON-guaranteed contract. Trad 5s are mostly useless in the NBA in the year 2021. The Nets dumped DJ for Griffin at the 5. They ALL suck.

I disagree with the bold part. From yesterday's Spurs-MAvs game; Poeltl played 36 minutes(+8) even though his team lost to Luka 104-99. I picked this example for reference to Zubac's(Our trad 5) shortcomings aganist him. 2 years ago Poeltl was a bench warmer behind Aldridge, foul prone-offensive liability. OTOH, Zubac was still starting Center for us and considered to have much more potential than him. This guy wasn't had it in him but he arrived to league with true environment and coaching.

Same could be sad for R.Holmes, whom another center from Zubac's class. He was a bench energy big on Philly and Sixers. Moved back to Sacromento and find starting opportunity, showed enough to stay 25+ minutes on the court. Zubac was ahead of him in 2018-19 season again. Holmes always showed he has it in him, needed an opportunity with a pointguard(Fox)

For Trad 5's coaching and playmakers matters to succeed. We obviously don't have a solid playmaker to play with a Trad 5. And I don't think Lue knows(or cares) how to play with or develop Trad 5. Doc didn't care about developing their talents, instead he cared for what he needed from them.

Let's come to the traditional playmakers to play traditional centers. Just imagine a guy like Fox-Lowry-Conley-Brogdon-Cp3 playing with Zubac. If you can't see Zu getting 15 ppg 11 rpg regular basis than there is nothing to talk about.

We are just a wrong team for trad 5's, lets not judge the whole group based on our franchise's lack of capability.

[ShaqFTs]

If we're relying on Luke Kennard to do anything consistently as a #3, we are in deep trouble. He needs to pick up his defense to warrant extended minutes.

our only hope is Morris coming up. And trades. I've given up on Ibaka, he's broken down.


Just happy Kawhi re-signed before watching this team play

[ShaqFTs]

Batum: 1-6 / 0-4
Zu: 1-5
Bleds: 1-6 / 1-3
Jackson: 3-12 / 2-8


-20 on the glass

Allow 46% from three.


Just abysmal. I think Lue needs to stop with the RJax/Bleds starting unit, Luke needs to get the nod and let RJax chuck with the bench. Mook, despite his subpar start, needs to be back too

Yeah, I'd like to see Luke take Reggie's spot and see how it goes. Reggie will probably have an easier time scoring against second units, and the second unit needs a better ball handler.

I can't believe some of the shots Reggie was taking tonight. I'm worried Ty has lost control of the team. On to the next.

[Clemenza]

Batum: 1-6 / 0-4
Zu: 1-5
Bleds: 1-6 / 1-3
Jackson: 3-12 / 2-8


-20 on the glass

Allow 46% from three.


Just abysmal. I think Lue needs to stop with the RJax/Bleds starting unit, Luke needs to get the nod and let RJax chuck with the bench. Mook, despite his subpar start, needs to be back too

Yeah, I'd like to see Luke take Reggie's spot and see how it goes. Reggie will probably have an easier time scoring against second units, and the second unit needs a better ball handler.

I can't believe some of the shots Reggie was taking tonight. I'm worried Ty has lost control of the team. On to the next.

Morris being out and when he does play he's sub par and mediocre crushed the start of the season for the team. Lue and the staff had no answers for that loss. Still don't. Also Reggie and Mann looks to be suffering from these new rules as the game is much more physical now. Mann has one on ones where you know he can't take the guy to the hole but he keeps dribbling out of it and passes off and defers.

[NickP]

Yeah, I'd like to see Luke take Reggie's spot and see how it goes. Reggie will probably have an easier time scoring against second units, and the second unit needs a better ball handler.

PG as our #1 and Luke as our #6 are the only things that are working. Build Back Backward.

When carving a block of granite, carve away everything that doesn't look like a statue.

Lol. Build back backwards.
I could take the first 2 loses. They were fighting. But the last 2 were meh, whatever kind of losses.
Lue has to make changes. The Bledsoe experiment is clearly not working. If this season is a lost cause then let Mann and Luke start with PG.

[KL2]

I knew this season would be rough without Leonard but I was not expecting such an abysmal start.

Lue, Mann, and Jackson have some looking in the mirror time to do. Fair or not these are the 3 that are the biggest disappointments to me.

[MartinToVaught]

I knew this season would be rough without Leonard but I was not expecting such an abysmal start.

Lue, Mann, and Jackson have some looking in the mirror time to do. Fair or not these are the 3 that are the biggest disappointments to me.

I'd say the real biggest disappointments are Frank, Ibaka and Morris.

Frank: This past offseason's moves look terrible. This team is so poorly-constructed, you'd think he was tanking for OKC.

Ibaka: Total bust of a signing, will probably never play for the Clippers again.

Morris: Barely plays anymore, and when he does, he stinks.

Reggie is definitely up there, though. It might be safe to say that Playoff Reggie was a contract year fluke and the real Reggie is the guy we signed off the scrap heap to be the last player off the bench.

Zubac is also a huge disappointment. He's clearly not in shape and looks slow.

I'm trying to stay patient with Mann because he's still young and has shown flashes of greatness, but if this timidness and inconsistency is going to be the norm for him, I don't know.

Hard to blame Lue when he's been handed such a mess of a roster.

[KL2]

I'd say the real biggest disappointments are Frank, Ibaka and Morris.

Frank: This past offseason's moves look terrible. This team is so poorly-constructed, you'd think he was tanking for OKC.

Ibaka: Total bust of a signing, will probably never play for the Clippers again.

Morris: Barely plays anymore, and when he does, he stinks.

Reggie is definitely up there, though. It might be safe to say that Playoff Reggie was a contract year fluke and the real Reggie is the guy we signed off the scrap heap to be the last player off the bench.

Zubac is also a huge disappointment. He's clearly not in shape and looks slow.

I'm trying to stay patient with Mann because he's still young and has shown flashes of greatness, but if this timidness and inconsistency is going to be the norm for him, I don't know.

Hard to blame Lue when he's been handed such a mess of a roster.

I’m probably in the minority (or on an island by myself) but I like the Bledsoe and Winslow additions. You can see how they’ll be able to help despite shortcomings as the season goes.

I’m stumped on Ibaka. He’s healthy they say and has gone through all the usual (5 on 5) steps but still isn’t cleared. It’s now or never.

I agree with Marcus. He claimed on media day he was 100% for the first time in a while. He clearly is not but I think we’re stuck with him as is.

Not really worried about Zu yet. We know from last season he wasn’t made for certain matchups. Until Ibaka/Morris can start eating up some of those minutes we’re dependent on him and Hartenstein.

I’m low on Mann because he’s talked the talk but isn’t backing it up yet. I know it’s early and plenty of time to get it together but I’m tired of the flexing.

This year isn’t a normal one so I put a lot of blame on Lue for stay the course talk. Mix it up before we’re in a hole we can’t climb out of.

[TrueLAfan]

I’m not totally panicky because nobody on the team is shooting incredibly well, and there’s no chance that Reggie, Bled, Batum, and Mook will shoot a combined 34% all year. But until they pick it up, we’re going to be in rough shape. Luke and Mann are playing pretty well—I agree about giving one of them a starting spot. I’d make it Mann; I think we need the scoring more off the bench, and Luke is markedly more productive so far. He's a solid sixth man right now.

The rebounding thing bothers me, though not as much—I mean, when you’re shooting 42% and missing 8 more shots a game than your opponents, they’re going to outrebound you. But we need a third rebounder to go with Zu and PG, who is doing too much right now. It should be Mook, but he just looked/looks shot out there.

...which leads to Ibaka. Look, Serge was our friggin starting PF. Without him, we've lost a ton of frontcourt presence. He's lost a step, but he can still block out well, grab rebounds like nobody's business, and be an effective defensive presence. We have NONE of those things right now. I didn't think we'd miss him so much, because we played well without him last year, but I think Kawhi's roving D helped a huge amount. We're getting pounded without Serge's strengths. We need him back.

[og15]

Serge would help. Morris if he stops sucking would help.

There are concerns so far, but it's hard to gauge how large the concerns are from 5 games.

The worst 3PT shooting team last season was 33.6%. The Clippers so far are at 31.7%, and only two players, George and Kennard are shooting >33%.

Regardless of how good the guys are, it's simply not realistic that all the remaining guys will shoot 33% and under for much longer.

Everyone hates when it is said, but law of averages
So far, Jackson, Mann, Bledsoe, Morris and Batum are 29/109 (26.7%). At the minimum you would expect that to jump to 35% which would be 9 more makes, 27 more points, that's a whopping 5.4 ppg lost on just poor 3PT shooting.

Average, not even great combined shooting from those guys would take the team from 102.8 to 108.2 ppg and a +3.4 differential instead of a negative one.

So that's why while it sucks, I also can give it time when outliers are happening as outliers for a whole team never tend to remain.

This is the argument I made to other fans about the Clippers vs Mavs in the playoffs as it related to how the teams were shooting on open and wide open shots. Dallas was not going to sustain their ridiculous shooting, and Clippers were not going to keep shooting poorly on good looks all series, and we saw what happened.

What I want to see is what the team truly looks like when they revert to the mean. Them at their worst alone isn't going to tell us too much, though it can tell us some about their fight, neither would them coming out shooting 50% 3PT as a team for the first 5 games and going 4-1 tell us how good they really are.

Hopefully they will make gradual improvements, but a team hasn't told you much about them until you see them play 20-30 games.

[Wammy Giveaway]

I’d make it Mann; I think we need the scoring more off the bench, and Luke is markedly more productive so far. He's a solid sixth man right now.

I don't know if a solid sixth man will do. Since Doc River's arrival, the Clipper's playoff appearances have been aided by a Sixth Man award winner: Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell. Their bench has always been pretty bad which was proven pretty evident thanks to last night. None of the players on this roster have ever won a Sixth Man award, none can even come close. I originally stated that the Clipper's playoff hopes rest solely on Mann making an All-Star Game, but I may have to change my stance. Whenever one of the Clipper starters is not performing well, the one to pick up the slack has been a Sixth Man candidate/award winner. None of the guys here are going to cut it.

Clippers might need to look into trading for a Sixth Man. No way Crawford's coming back. Williams is in the twilight of his career (he's been getting DNP's lately for a weird reason). Harrell does much better with teams who want to prove the league wrong, such as Wizards who are being seen as another lottery team with Beal's name always being brought up in trade rumors. Who else out there in the league is a bonafide Sixth Man Of The Year award winner, somebody who can replace the points, rebounds and assists for Kawhi Leonard until he comes back?

And as for the big man problem, that's going to be permament thing for Clippers. Their defensive schemes would have to be modified in such a way that they all result in turnovers, either by drawing airball contests, blocks, steals, offensive fouls, shot clock violations, travelling, and other forms of schemes where a rebound is not required. Basically, break the record for turnovers per game, and that's a Herculean task.

[madmaxmedia]

.
Everyone hates when it is said, but law of averages

It seems clear our mean is not the team that finished off Utah and took Phoenix to 6 games without a bunch of guys, but it isn’t this team right now either…

Since we don’t have Ibaka, we really need a healthy Mook but we got neither right now. My guess is at least one of the 2 will be playing healthy soon, but maybe we don’t get both for awhile (or at all this season.)

There are other concerns of course, Kennard, what Mann can show this year, the new guys Bledsoe and Winslow, and what Reggie are we gonna get this year when everything is said and done.

While there seem to be some lineup changes that need to be made, I trust Lue’s timing on this. I feel as knee-jerk as any right now, but he’s playing for the season, not the immediate games this week.

Finally, it’s a shame we couldn’t take the 2 games where PG puts up All-NBA stat lines.